


09. Ice Skating

by greywolfheir



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Gen, Ice Skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1087798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywolfheir/pseuds/greywolfheir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The twins want to ice skate. The problem is, Artemis doesn't know how.</p>
            </blockquote>





	09. Ice Skating

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any problems with canon divergence or OOCness. I haven't read the books in years and I never got my hands on the last one. Holly is also really only here because I like the way she interacts with Artemis, sorry not sorry.

 “I don’t know why you’re asking me, Beckett,” Artemis said, not looking away from his computer. “Why not ask Mother or Father?”

“They said to ask _you_ ,” Beckett explained. Behind him, Myles started giggling. Artemis spared him the barest of glances, just to make sure he wasn’t doing anything destructive.

“What is it, Myles?” he sighed.

“Artemis doesn’t know _how_ to ice-skate,” Myles laughed, speaking to Beckett more than to his older brother.

Artemis immediately stopped typing and turned to the eight-year old. “That is _not_ true.”

Myles simply nodded, still laughing. Beckett was starting to join his twin, which definitely wasn’t a good thing.

“Just because I’ve never _been_ ice-skating doesn’t mean it’s not a very simple concept,” Artemis explained. “I most certainly know _how_ to do it.”

“See? He can’t do it,” Myles told Beckett.

“Were you not listening? I said—“

“She has pointy ears!” Beckett interruped, pointing behind Artemis.

Artemis spun around again and found…“Holly? What are you doing here?”

For a second, the captain looked like she’d been caught with her hand in a cookie jar, but she shook it off quickly and shrugged. “Well, things have been quiet below, so I took some days off and…well, I thought I’d come to see you guys.”

“Oh,” Artemis said, caught off-guard. He’d been expecting some new mission or something gone wrong. “Well, it’s good to see you.”

“Who are you?” Myles asked. Artemis rolled his eyes. Even thought Beckett abhorred his lessons, Artemis thought the boy would have learned at least some semblance of manners.

“Myles, don’t be so rude. This is my friend Holly,” Artemis said.

“Why does she have pointy ears?” Beckett asked, walking over with an outstretched hand like he wanted to touch them, but Artemis pulled him back.

“Forgive my brothers,” Artemis said to Holly with a pained expression.

“Oh I’m used to rude Fowl boys,” Holly assured him. Artemis made a face at her but she continued before he could respond. “I heard ice-skating was going on. That sounds fun.”

“No, we’re not—“

“Oh come on,” Holly said. “You said you’d never done it before, and I know there have to be some lakes or ponds nearby that have frozen over by now.”

Before Artemis could shoot them down again, Juliet walked in, saying, “Sorry to interrupt, Artemis, I thought I heard—Holly!” The girl ran over to the elf, wrapping her in a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Just having a vacation,” Holly said with a shrug.

“Wait I’ll go get my brother. I’ll be right back.” Before Holly or Artemis could stop her, she had run out the door.

“We can all go ice-skating!” Myles exclaimed excitedly.

Artemis opened his mouth to argue, but then he saw the look the twins were giving him, eyes open wide and hopeful. He turned to Holly, who was just smirking, with one eyebrow lifted. He then turned back to his computer, the work he could be doing instead. It was starting to just look like a bunch of jumbled numbers, though. He let out a sigh. “Fine.”

The twins started cheering right as Butler walked in, grabbing Holly into a hug. The elf laughed and greeted him then asked. “So…know anywhere we can find ice-skates?”

 

* * *

 

Artemis huffed, his breath swirling in the air. He was sitting next to the pond, watching Juliet and Butler skate around. “Are you absolutely sure this is safe? What if it isn’t frozen enough and they fall through?”

Holly gave Artemis an incredulous look. “It’s freezing here, it’s a shallow pond and _Butler_ just tested it out. I think we’re fine. Now are you going to teach this to your brothers or not?”

Artemis frowned and got up, wobbling a little on the skates. He got used to it after a second and walked over to where his brothers were attempting to get up. Artemis helped them up and slowly walked them over to the edge. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but his heart was pounding.

“Alright, so the basic principle is to just glide your feet along it, like walking without picking your feet up,” Artemis explained, but the twins weren’t listening. They already took their first steps, which meant Artemis would have to follow if they were to go any farther. He took a deep breath and gently touched his skate to the ice. It stayed, which gave him confidence. Right, next step. Artemis moved his other foot and…yes! He was standing on the ice and hadn’t fallen yet. Then it was just a matter of gliding like he’d said and _he was doing it!_

Artemis was proud of himself. He hadn’t royally messed this one up this time, he was doing it perfectly. The twins were like prodigies and after going the first few feet, the let go of Artemis and simply held each other’s hands, skating around like they’d been doing it all their lives. Artemis meanwhile felt on top of the world. He started going faster and _still_ hadn’t fallen! He looked up to find Holly—and immediately fell face first into a snow bank. He’d forgotten to look where he was going.

There was a chorus of laughs behind him, but he refused to let it get him down. This was _his_ success and he wasn’t going to let a tiny mistake ruin it. He picked himself up and went back to skating with the others. It was all going well…until he went to the part of the lake no one had been to yet. It just _happened_ to be the only place with the thinnest amount of ice…and Artemis fell in.

Everyone was laughing harder as Artemis glared at them from his water hole. Holly stopped by to help him out.

“Hard luck you’re having,” Holly said, barely suppressing a giggle.

“Very funny,” Artemis growled as he climbed out.

 

* * *

 

A few minutes later, changed into dry clothes, Artemis was back, determined not to mess up this time. As he reached the edge, though, Holly stopped in front of him and held out her hand.

“Maybe you need a second pair of eyes for this,” she said with a small smile.

Artemis hesitated but eventually nodded and grabbed her hand. If his face was a little red...well, it _was_ cold. 


End file.
